Kieran Culkin and Colman Domingo on Why Acting Methods Are Useless and Objecting to ‘When Actors Call Themselves Storytellers’: ‘Sorry, Jeremy’ Strong
Colman Domingo and Kieran Culkin take opposite approaches to their work. Domingo researches every role and sets his alarm for several hours before he’s due on set, which Culkin teases him about. “If I have a 5 a.m. pickup, you know when I wake up?” Culkin says. “5 a.m.” But, as they learn here, their hearts as performers are very much alike. Domingo is one of only a few professional actors in “Sing Sing”; largely, his castmates are formerly incarcerated men who play themselves in a story about an in-prison theater program. He plays their leader, whose self-assured demeanor falls apart as he tries and fails to get his wrongful murder conviction overturned. In “A Real Pain,” Culkin stars as the troubled, childlike Benji, who goes on a Holocaust tour with his cousin, David (writer-director Jesse Eisenberg). As they travel through their late grandmother’s native Poland, David becomes overwhelmed with worry about Benji’s constant emotional outbursts. Here, the two actors compare notes on their morning routines, the joys of having (and not having) children — and the annoying ways some of their fellow thespians describe their profession.
KIERAN CULKIN: You started in the circus?
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COLMAN DOMINGO: I did. I was just trying to get a gig, because I’d only taken a couple acting classes.
CULKIN: Did you find any of it helpful? The acting classes? Some people go, “I need to listen to everything my teacher says as if it’s the gospel.” And it’s not.
DOMINGO: Some things don’t work. But one of my first teachers told me, “I’m going to give you some tools, and you can use them, but you also want to expand your toolbox.” Anything I do, it’s always like the first time I’m doing it. I don’t wanna do anything the same way. I don’t have a method.
CULKIN: The moment you start doing that, you’re like, “I’ve become complacent, and now I’m bored and I don’t want to do this anymore.” That’s why I like auditioning. Whenever I haven’t auditioned, I’m like, “You might not like this at all. You just did this because some producer said, ‘You gotta give it to this guy.” But if I’ve auditioned, then at least you know what you’re expecting. On “A Real Pain,” Jesse Eisenberg hadn’t seen “Succession.” He cast me without auditioning me or seeing me in anything, ever. And he thinks this is totally normal. He’s like, “I met you before.” We met twice in passing. That is not how you cast someone.
DOMINGO: Listen, I’ve passed you a couple of times. I got a sense of you very quickly. Just the way you make eye contact. You’re a bit of a…how can I say it?
CULKIN: Maniac. Psychopath. Bipolar.
DOMINGO: I would actually say you’re a very dangerous actor. And that’s the kind of actor I like. Your work is beautiful in “A Real Pain.” Like, “I’m not sure if I like him or not. Is he a bit of a narcissist?” But then there’s something about him that’s so honest.
CULKIN: Benji, I don’t think he thinks at all before he does anything. So I made a point not to plan. I would literally be walking to set asking Jesse what scene we’re doing, which would give him a panic attack. He’s like, “You have a page-long speech!” I’m like, “I learn lines fast. Let’s find out what the scene is by doing it.”
DOMINGO: Are you aware of where cameras are?
CULKIN: Vaguely, but that’s none of my business. On “Succession,” the cameras were always somewhere beyond. You lean on the person that you’re with. I’m sure you’re used to that too. “Sing Sing” — one of the best ensembles I’ve seen in years, decades, possibly ever. And most of these people had never been on camera. That is such a feat.
DOMINGO: Greg Kwedar, our director, invited everyone to bring what they had and didn’t judge whatever it was. I was shooting “The Color Purple” right before and doing pickups for “Rustin” right after, so I literally had 18 days. I had to go in there a bit more raw, in a way I was uncomfortable with. I like to prepare a lot. This was the first time I was like, “Oh no, I have to not know exactly what’s happening.” But it made sense for this film, because here I am, working with guys who have lived experience. There can’t be any polish. I have to lean into them where they are.
CULKIN: Clarence Maclin is brilliant.
DOMINGO: He’s beautiful, isn’t he? There’s one take, my favorite of the film, when he has me cornered in a tight space, and I offer him the word “beloved.” Then he just walked away. I’m like, “No, no, he’s got to really let that word work on him.” So I leaned into my director like, “Could he just hang in there with it?” And he did. I have to give it to Greg Kwedar. He rarely wanted to call “cut.” Everyone wants to cut so quickly. I’m like, “Yo, give me a little bit. There’s more. There’s always more.”
CULKIN: Sometimes, on “Succession,” we would just shoot the shit. With the actors playing siblings, we were filling in gaps of what’s happening between scenes. It made the thing feel a little more full.
DOMINGO: Who was one of your favorite scene partners?
CULKIN: Sarah Snook. You’re not supposed to have favorites; I have a favorite. There would be times, just for fun, I would take her line, and then give her a little side-eye. And then the scene would go on, and when it was my line, she would take mine and go, “Got you, bitch.” Right before we were about to finish shooting, she goes, “Are you ready to cry? No one’s ever going to cast the two of us in anything. We’re never going to work together again.” I just bawled. When you’re on a show like that, and we play brother-sister, people will always make that comparison. So she’s probably right.
DOMINGO: Do you still see each other a lot though?
CULKIN: She lives in Australia, so it’s hard to keep up. I’m not the best with the phone thing. I always relied on the fact that there was going to be another season. But she’s my son’s godmother and one of my favorite people in the world.
DOMINGO: I know a lot of people, but when it comes to the people that are close to me, it’s really small. Do you have a small group of people, or is it pretty large?
CULKIN: My wife and my two kids. That’s it.
DOMINGO: What do you like about being a father?
CULKIN: Absolutely everything except dinner time. I love everything else. It feels like nothing else matters. I’m a dad now, and my only role in life is that. That’s real life. All this is lovely, but I’m just trying to get home. Do you ever want kids?
DOMINGO: I wanted kids in my 20s. Now, I have a lot of really good furniture. Where do you go to unwind from all of it?
CULKIN: I don’t.
DOMINGO: I’m not going to try to be a psychologist, but I think you need some time for yourself. What time do you wake up in the morning?
CULKIN: I don’t think I’ve ever woken up at the same time.
DOMINGO: I woke up at 4:30 this morning. Because I need a good two to three hours just for me before I do all this stuff.
CULKIN: You’re nuts. Do you do that on set?
DOMINGO: No matter what character. A hero, a villain, you name it — I need time for myself.
CULKIN: I got a good question. Is there any note a director has ever given you, where you’re like, “I can take this with me for all things”?
DOMINGO: George C. Wolfe broke my shit down on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” He said, “You’ve been directing, right? I can tell, because you know exactly the way the scene should be.” I said, “That’s good, right?” And he said, “Yeah, but I’m missing the discovery in the moment. I want to watch, behind your eyes, you taking in information, and it’s shifting you. Because you cannot recycle vulnerability.” He was taking me back to 21-year-old Colman, who was a bit more wild-eyed and feeling my way through.
CULKIN: I object to when actors call themselves “storytellers.” I don’t really like that. Sorry, Jeremy [Strong]. I don’t think I’m telling the story. Jesse Eisenberg was really good at making sure everyone was involved, but he wrote it. He’s telling the story. We’re all helping him. So that note you got — if you’re aware of the story you’re trying to tell, and you’re trying to tell the story in the scene, that’s not really your job.
DOMINGO: We’re not storytellers. We’re servants of the story.
CULKIN: Let’s fucking work together, man.
DOMINGO: I’d like that. You have a sparkle in your eye, man.
CULKIN: I’m not dead inside yet.
DOMINGO: You’re alive.
Production: Emily Ullrich; Lighting Director: Max Bernetz; Set Direction: Gille Mills
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